Jessica Harrison wins first ITU World Cup

France’s Jessica Harrison stormed to her first career ITU Triathlon World Cup title in Tongyeong, South Korea, a satisfying victory for the veteran whose ITU career began in 1995. In this her 46th World Cup appearance, Harrison finally stood atop the podium.

“(The race) went as well as I could have expected,” said Harrison. “It feels pretty good, it’s been a long time coming, little by little I’ve been getting up the ladder and I hope that could be an inspiration for the girls who aren’t world beaters at (age) 18. With hard work and really concentrating on the details, you can get there in the end and I’m really happy.”

Ireland’s Aileen Morrison crossed the finish line 30 seconds behind Harrison to take silver, an outstanding performance just six days after racing in the gruelling World Cup in Huatulco, Mexico. Spain’s Zurine Rodriguez broke through for her first trip to a World Cup podium.

In the men’s race, Russia’s Dmitry Polyansky continued his impressive late season surge with an emphatic victory breaking the tape at 1 hour, 49 minutes and 33 seconds. Spain’s Jose Miguel Perez and Belgium’s Simon De Cuyper both broke through for the first World Cup podiums of their respective careers.

After leading the swim, Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) and Richard Varga (SVK) led a large pack of 26 out onto the bike course with Russian teammates Igor Polyanskiy, Dmitry Polyansky and Denis Vasiliev just metres behind. At the men attacked the tough 40km bike course, packs came together, resulting in 34 athletes riding together heading into T2.

Once they were on the 10km run course, Polyansky surged to the front and opened a seven-second lead on De Cuyper, Daniel Hofer (ITA), home favourite Min Ho Heo (KOR) and Tony Dodds (NZL). At the midway mark of the run, Polyansky has extended his lead and held a 23-second advantage over his closest pursuers.

Perez surged to the silver medal position, finishing just 16 seconds behind Polyansky while De Cuyper also came from behind to over take last year’s runner-up Aurelien Raphael for the silver.

Photo: Arnold Lim/triathlon.org

Matt Baird Editor of Cycling Plus magazine

About

Matt is a regular contributor to 220 Triathlon, having joined the magazine in 2008. He’s raced everything from super-sprint to Ironman, duathlons and off-road triathlons, and can regularly be seen on the roads and trails around Bristol. Matt is the author of Triathlon! from Aurum Press and is now the editor of Cycling Plus magazine.